Actress Karla Mosley has played Maya Avant on the CBS soap opera for nearly two years. But it was finally revealed yesterday that Mosley’s character has a secret: She’s a trans woman.

According to an interview with Us Weekly, Mosley consulted with GLAAD when she was told of the new direction her character would take and that helped her understand the important role she would play in promoting mainstream acceptance of transgendered individuals.

“I think that that’s probably part of why they came to me with this,” she explained. “In addition to the fact that it really fits Maya’s story in this kind of amazing way that no one could’ve ever predicted, I think that they also knew that I would be totally ready and willing to talk about these things in an open way.”

Mosley continued, “As someone who is an artist and an activist I know how important trans issues are — how it’s life and death for people at this point.”

The reveal comes after a handful of shows have debuted emotional story lines about trans characters. Orange Is the New Black‘s first season detailed a trans woman’s struggle to build a relationship with her son, and the final season of Glee followed one character’s transition from woman to man, culminating in an emotional moment featuring a choir made up of 200 trans individuals.